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Beth Orton - Central Reservation
- Beth Orton's sophomore effort of Central Reservation is as darkly captivating a CD as you're likely to find. This British import of a singer/songwriter has written a deeply personal and trancelike album. It is partly set to the "trip-hop" style she is somewhat responsible for bringing to the forefront of pop-culture (in collaborations with William Orbit, and the Chemical Brothers), and partly set in the languid storytelling style of old timers like Tony Bennett.
The album has contributions from the likes of Mazzy Star's, David Roback, Ben Harper, and Everything But The Girls' DJ Ben Watt on a remix version of the title track. Between the original Watt-less version and the remix however, my preference goes toward the remix version. Let it be known though, that I'm not a big fan of the "remix" as a whole.... It seems that every time there's a hit single on the radio, it has to be touted as such in the opening seconds by a "street cred" rapper for better cross demographic appeal. And then it has to be re-mixed into an even more gaudy excuse for pop-fluff. This is about as important to your musical diet as a Ring-Ding (though I do love my occasional Ring-Dings).
Most pop-radio listeners are only going to know the opening track, "Stolen Car", a driven, melody oriented dark tale of lost love. I actually am going through phases this week, switching between listening to the album as a whole, and other times putting "Stolen Car" on repeat and letting it play until I can't tell if I'm hearing it in my head or on the stereo... the song's that good.
Ms. Orton has never been a big commercial draw, but don't mistake commerce for art. Just because her Lillith Fair contemporaries, such as Sarah McLachlan, have flourished commercially, doesn't make Orton's contributions any less musically important.
If those of you reading this review are iTunes addicts and only want to buy one track at a time, I'd highly recommend "Stolen Car", one of the most danceable of the tracks, as your first purchase. The rest of the album is more the trancelike version and while beautifully crafted and executed, they function better together as an album than as singles.
Reviewer: David Fallo
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Reviewer's Rating: 9
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 8-Feb-2006
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